Haryana schools seek NGT nod for diesel buses
The tribunal on Monday issued notices to the Haryana government, ministry of environment and forests and the ministry of petroleum and natural gas among other agencies to respond to the schools application by October 1.
Around 77 schools at Narnaul in Mahendergarh district of Haryana have filed an application in National Green Tribunal (NGT) pleading that it allows old diesel buses to ply again till there are adequate CNG stations in the state. NGT had recently directed that no diesel vehicles more than 10-years-old would ply in NCR.
The tribunal on Monday issued notices to the Haryana government, ministry of environment and forests and the ministry of petroleum and natural gas among other agencies to respond to the schools application by October 1.
They have also appealed the tribunal to direct RTOs to allow these buses to ply a minimum of 5 lakh km.
The bench said it will hear their appeal along with VardhamanKaushik’s petition against severe air pollution in Delhi which had led NGT to impose a ban on the vehicles in NCR. The application states that the distance between Narnaul and Delhi is about 150 km and Narnaul has a population of less than a lakh. “The comparison of Narnaul with other NCRs like Delhi, Gurgaon, Bahadurgarh, Faridabad, Ghaziabad and Noida with regard to pollution levels is not reasonable…the particulate matter levels in Delhi is around 295 micrograms per cubic metres compared to less than 20 micrograms per cubic metres in Narnaul.”
There is neither a single CNG pump available after Gurgaon towards Narnaul nor a CNG filling station for about 118 km from Narnaul, the application added.
The petition claims that school buses run about 60,000 to 66,000 km in 10 years. “It is well established that a lifespan of diesel buses is about 10 lakh km. The scrapping of diesel buses which are in good condition will only cause monetary hardship to the applicants and make pollution level rise…as parents will be constrained to pick up and drop their children to school,” it said.
The schools have 24 buses for which they have applied for fitness certificates at the RTO. They have also appealed the tribunal to direct RTOs to allow these buses to ply a minimum of 5 lakh km.